Skepticlese's Blog (11)

I had a heated debate with my more intelligent other this weekend about our respective beliefs. She's about as non-religious as anyone I know, but declines to believe that death is the beginning of one's non-existence. "If so, then what purpose does life have if this is all there is?" she asks.

I, for one, believe that because life is indeed so short, we need to take responsibility for it and try to leave the world a little better than it was when you got here. But for her, the…

What is the fascination with "Christmas Miracles?" Is this simply ignorant reporters searching for a catchy headline in order to draw readers to their story or is there more to it? It seems that always around Christmas the number of divine interventions increases. These alleged "miracles" make the headlines and perpetuate the silly notion that God has somehow stepped maneuvered in on the affairs of mere mortals and made something a little better.

Bill Dedman, an investigative reporter for MSNBC, has written an article on a photograph that many books and news organizations, including MSNBC, mistakenly characterized as women firefighters trying to put out a fire immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Indeed, the caption from the original MSBC photoblog on the 70th anniversary…

Rumors are again running amok that physicists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider may soon announce the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Exciting times for adherents to the Standard Model (which I don't pretend to understand), although the results may be less rigorous than hoped for, with more work to come.

I just wish that whatever the result, it'll eventually lead to the Transporter, as I've grown generally…

According to a series of recent studies reported in the National Post, it turns out that we atheists are among the least trusted people around, with religious people ranking us along with rapists as the least trusted groups. This doesn't seem very shocking for anyone who has ever expressed their views to someone of faith and why many of us,…

We've hit another brick in the wall. Today's big story is about a bunch of UK Muslim medical and biology students boycotting their biology classes because the lectures on evolution were inconsistent with the creation teachings of the Koran. This is not new--fundamentalist Christians have been arguing the same bunk for years. It's just that this week's flavor of wacko…

A recent event really tested my ability to avoid seeking supernatural assistance. My eight-year old broke her arm on the playground. And as she lay in the hospital with a morphine drip to manage her pain before surgery, I felt nearly helpless. Nothing I could do physically could help her and while I'm sure she was happy I was with her and supporting her as a parent…